Inspiration, aka, WTF???

A lot of people ask me “Where do you get your ideas from?” when they find out that I write. Honestly, mostly my ideas come from those WTF moments that we all have. I’m not a particularly observant person, so many things tend to get by me.

HOWEVER.

Standing in the checkout line at CVS, I noticed the lady in front of me who was likely Pentecostal, with a very traditional long skirt and long gray hair all the way down her back. What was the ONE item she checking out with? A can of hair mousse.

WTF?

So I start thinking… rebellious daughter? Spanish lover? Science project? Or just a peek at a Cosmo quiz, and the sudden inexplicable decision that dammit, for ONCE, she needed PRODUCT! Or perhaps she was extremely nearsighted, forgot her glasses, and meant to get the whipped cream, and good lord, hopefully she isn’t driving if that’s the case.

Another example. Driving along I usually don’t notice a lot of things, such as a four way stop (thank you SO much, Mr. Officer, for noticing it for me. Hmph). But one afternoon, driving down the road, I noticed one of those large US mail boxes in the parking lot of a small strip mall. And there was a man in a dull trench coat, leaning against it, face hidden in his arms.

Ooooh.

Does he send the birthday card to the daughter who doesn’t know he exists, or does he move on with his life? Did he wipe his fingerprints off of the extortion letter well enough, and will his pilates instructor actually pay the ten thousand dollar demand? Can he make it to the next stationary object in his inebriated state, or will he have to call his estranged lover, the only person who never judged him for singing John Elton songs when drunk?

And really, that’s kind of it.

Disappointed? ;)

A Character Only an Author Could Love

It strikes me that as readers, we have a luxury. We can love or hate any character in a book at will. Lord Voldemort, Richard III, and Agent Smith are deliciously villainous, which makes them interesting and their motivations fascinating. They have backstories, ie, my mother didn’t love me and daddy beat me, everyone made fun of me because I’m a hunchback, I have extra-sensitive olfactories and humans smell bad, wah wah. Whatever. We hate them. We really really hate them and can’t wait to see them defeated. (Unless you’re one of those that takes pleasure in being perverse, but really, if you would just TRY to wear a nice pastel instead of all that black, I really think you’d feel better about life in general.)

Ah hem. Sorry, tangent.

The thing is, as an author, you aren’t allowed that luxury. You have to love all of your characters, even the villains, at least a little bit, in order to give them any sort of depth. You have to actually care WHY Dr. McNastyPants acts like a creep in order to figure out what new jerkoff thing he’s going to pull on your lovely three dimensional (and good looking) hero next. Otherwise, said doctor will simply annoy your reader as he goes about shooting people up for no good reason.

The irony is that if you as an author don’t love your villains, you won’t be able to inspire that rabid hatred in your readers that is the mark of a really great villain.